Compassion fatigue and the optician of Lampedusa

Day after day we are bombarded with images of overcrowded rubber boats in the Mediterranean, horrific pictures of obliterated streets in Aleppo and heartbreaking photographs of desperate people staring through the bars of refugee reception centres.
Occasionally a single image will startle us from our numbed state: Aylan Kurdi's tiny body washed up on a Turkish beach; the bewildered, bloodied face of the five-year-old Syrian boy Omran Daqneesh, sitting barefoot and plastered in masonry dust in the back of an ambulance.
Yet somehow, many of the horror stories of the Syrian war and this... read more

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More than 1,000 illegal immigrants escaping political turmoil in north Africa arrived on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean on Sunday night.
Taking advantage of good weather, the immigrants, most of them from Tunisia,...

The number of refugees from north Africa arriving on the tiny island of Lampedusa has reached 15,000, the Italian government has said, prompting a UN warning over a humanitarian crisis on the island.
The UN refugee agency said thousands were sleeping...

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ITALIAN premier Silvio Berlusconi has promised to evacuate the thousands of North Africans who have overwhelmed the tiny southern island of Lampedusa.
A Navy ship and a commercial ferry arrived in the morning, and at least three more are...

Facing fierce criticism over his handling of a wave of north Africans landing on the Italian island of Lampedusa, Silvio Berlusconi has put on a vintage display of showmanship, claiming he would empty the island of immigrants within 60 hours, nominate...

US transportation secretary Ray LaHood: 'Controllers have to make sure they get the right rest.' Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA US air traffic controllers will get longer breaks between shifts to prevent fatigue, but transport officials have rejected...

Lula remains in good health, but the radiation therapy has inflamed his throat and caused "reduced appetite and fatigue," Sao Paulo's Sirio Libanes Hospital reported on Saturday.
His medical team said he would stay in the hospital for...